[Intro: Shad]
Uh
TAO
Yeah, uh

[Verse 1: Shad]
Thanks for listening to these cyanide diatribes
In this strange zoo where the snakes become lionized
Then we can’t identify the pride when it’s giant-sized, bright orange and not even tryna hide
Trying times, tyrants flying by
Tech is one big private eye
I just want some heat, why’s my thermostat tryna spy?
Legalized weed but the water’s more privatized
Damn, they leaving us litеrally, high and dry
I’m a quiet guy but the pattern is clеar
From today’s data extraction back to them dragging us here
First man was extracted from the land
To clear the way for extracting from the planet and now extraction’s just expanded
Since they dug up most of the gold and the granite
Now they digging in our souls and their goal, is extracting our humanity
All while distracting from the plan
Using literal codes the people can’t and aren’t allowed to understand
Just a handful of companies tracking our every movement
We becoming less, human and they call it an improvement
But this ain't nothing new
It's the just same despotic sick logic that saw all Black bodies as just objects
Now, it’s magnified ‘cause we artists all pacified
We supposed to lead, supposed to be the masterminds
The catalysts, the capitalists, have us tied
Now we satirize the same things we advertise
Yes it’s as depressing as it sounds
Even counting all the blessings doesn’t lessen the amount
It’s a lot, so I’m down for people stretching the accounts
To get counseling sessions or yoga stretches to the ground
Or taking treks into the mountains quick, exits from a town full of stresses
If it gets us to the lessons of the Tao
Check it out, like Catholics and Baptists that truly practice love
For all those still on the road, to Damascus
Free, meals and masses
Life, at long last said love’s only in blood and it can't be kept, in caskets
Look, we really need to believe and keep, gathering to keep battling and keep on the path, we travelling
It’s hard, home used to be where the heart is
Now it's just another market and everything is a bargain
And everyone is a target
Every month the apartment rentals jump, in charges
Food, I always had but I never once, could harvest
So, I’m still starved, in part from eating garbage
Fake carbs in cartons
Ay, more people just need a job
Few people can keep the laws
More people perceive a problem
Few people can see the cause
Few people with real family, more people just tweeting “Squad”
More people leaving their bodies, their deepest peace has been robbed
They seek relief in the products and keep receipts
'Cause when we need to eat, that’s when people cheat
Greed, deceit and, other evils seen and treated as legal means
No, guillotines, that’s the elitists’ dream
No revolution, just so accustomed to corruption that we shrug it off
Unsurprised anytime that we uncover fraud
And it's subtle how it ramps up
From the shadows to a travel ban like, all of Pakistan plus
Anybody named Khalid’s in the Taliban, what?
You can almost laugh 'til a Alexandre Bissonnette, in Quebec City
Gets a Kalashnikov and, walks in a mosque

[Verse 2: Shad]
Now fear is the climate, the mood’s violent
Truth's silent, since they made the news biased
By saying stations should be free, to spew lies and
Not have to broadcast peer-reviewed science
And free to sell anything long, as you’ll buy it
We give less, youth guidance and make more schools private
Here, in the land where the richest dwell
Sickest wealth, heaven, but we sick as hell
Sickest health, emotional sickle cell’s now the new normal
So as far as who, is and who isn’t well
Well everyone’s too sick to tell
Let’s lift the veil, break the witch's spell
Spell it out, on a different wheel of fortune, I’m saying it’s just a “L”
Don’t be afraid to take a risk and fail
Or else sit in jails, too many minds in prison cells
Bell hooks on my bookcase
Kristen Bell, I’m in a good place
With what’s written amidst the shelves
Inspired speech I’m just tryna apply the teachings I’ve acquired reading tales of liars, cheats, and admired leaders
The irony is being down in the mire, deep
Might, actually help us reach the higher peaks
Even while it all sounds entirely tire screech, dire, bleak as a secret diary by The Wire’s police or fire chief
I’m, still believing more than ever in forever
In together, in a better world
V for Vendetta girl
In that cell with the letter, I remember the rush
Of seeing We as a body and remembering us
From parts dismembered to peace when we re-enter in touch
When we remember, reassemble, recentre in trust
That's what's up
Low fashion, Canadian style
But I was blessed with this radiant smile
So come and stay for a while
Pray for the child with the soul in his sound
To stay devout until that hole in the ground
I'm no more holy than thou
Want us to be whole and holding it down
No controlling the future but we could take hold of the now
If we don't, throw in towel or simply go with the crowd
Decide, before we bow close the show and be out
TAO

[Outro]
From parts to dismembered to peace
Remember this
Body
Parts to dismembered to peace
Remember
Remember
Reassemble
As a body
Re-enter in touch